Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Sinking Cities That Can't Blame Seas
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| Several of the world’s major cities are slowly sinking into the ocean, some at a staggering pace, and without any help from sea level rise. Here are a few of the cities most in danger of being overtaken by the sea. |
Jakarta
Jakarta is sinking faster than any other big city on the planet, faster even, than climate change is causing the sea to rise—so surreally fast that rivers sometimes flow upstream, ordinary rains regularly swamp neighborhoods and buildings slowly disappear undergound, swallowed up by the earth. The main cause: Jakartans are digging illegal wells, drip by drip draining the underground aquifers on which the city rests—like deflating a giant cushion underneath it. About 40 percent of Jakarta now lies below sea level.1
Different sections of the city—home to 10 million people within an urban area of 30 million—are subsiding at different rates, but most fall in the range of 3 to 10 centimeters every year. Over the years, that has added up to as much as four meters of surface elevation change. This has wreaked havoc on building foundations and other infrastructure. And as Jakarta sits on the coast, where a number of small rivers meet the sea, the flooding hazard is also real. This includes high-tide seawater flooding but also storm water flooding as rains captured by the sprawling city’s pavement struggles to drain seaward.2
Why the instability? Jakarta is a case of humans doing the wrong things in just the right place. River sediments deposited at the coast in places like this are naturally somewhat compressible. The actual weight of all the buildings and other construction at the surface is acting to compact the sediment a little, not unlike tampering down loose sand or soil in your yard. The biggest factor, though, is excessive groundwater pumping.
Within the sediment beneath Jakarta are several stacked aquifer layers that water can be pumped out of. Between the aquifer layers are impermeable capping layers. The use of well water in and around the city has caused the groundwater levels in the aquifers to drop tens of meters. As water level drops, the drained spaces lose that support and can collapse, compacting the sediment. In addition, the water pressure inside the impermeable capping layers can also drop during all this. This allows them to compress in a more reversible way—more like an air mattress deflating slightly. 2
London
Dhaka
The capital of Bangladesh is sinking at a rate of a half-inch per yer. Like Jakarta, the situation is being exacerbated by groundwater extraction at in unsustainable rate, as well as shifting tectonic plates. 4
Bangkok
Bangkok finds itself in a precarious position. Currently sitting just five feet above sea level, and sinking at a rate of one inch per year, the city is projected to be submerged by 2030 unless drastic measures are taken. Bangkok does not suffer from the same groundwater issues as Jakarta and Dhaka, but its towering skyscrapers are, however causing the ground to cave in on itself. 4
New Orleans
Swing and a miss! Huge asteroid to narrowly pass by Earth on December 26th
While many people will be nursing their food hangovers after a Christmas feast, a giant, potentially hazardous, asteroid will shoot past the Earth. Fear not, this potential party pooper is not expected to disrupt the holidays.
The Near-Earth Object (NEO) is named 2000 CH59, after the year in which it was discovered. It is estimated to measure between up to 2,034 feet. At the upper end of the estimates it would dwarf both the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State building, meaning were it to hit it was cause immense damage.
© NASA JPL/CNEOS
The space rock is believed to be travelling at a speed of 27,447mph, or roughly 18 times faster than an F-16 fighter flying at full speed, and will buzz the Earth at 7.54am UTC (2:54 am EST) on December 26.
Its "close approach" will actually take place at about 4,530,666 miles from the Earth or 19 times farther than the moon according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
"Over many centuries and millennia [these asteroids] might evolve into...
Richard Jewell and Donald Trump: Both Victims of a Corrupt Media, Academia, and FBI
I still vividly recall watching the live announcement in September of 1990 by the International Olympic Committee awarding the Centennial Olympic Games (held in the summer of 1996) to the city of Atlanta. As the boisterous cheers after the initial announcement demonstrated, much of the whole state of Georgia was giddy with excitement. From Gainesville to Savannah, Olympic venues were built or otherwise prepared all over the state, and Georgia comedian Jeff Foxworthy promised the world that the Georgia Olympics would have its own distinct Southern flavor.
I’m not much of a fan of the Olympics, so I didn’t get caught up in the hoopla. Instead of hosting the Olympics, I would’ve much preferred to see the 1990s Atlanta Braves win the World Series. I didn’t attend one Olympic event, and I did my best to avoid the Olympic crowds and traffic. Instead of the games, like many other Americans, what I most recall from that summer was the Olympic Park bombing and the ugly efforts of the media, law enforcement, et al that followed.
Just after 1 a.m., on July 27, 1996, an ALICE pack stuffed with three pipe bombs and numerous three-inch masonry nails—the total weight being more than 40 pounds—exploded. The blast killed one person and injured more than one hundred. The casualties would’ve been much worse if not for the efforts of AT&T security guard, Richard Jewell.
If you had forgotten about or were never very familiar with Jewell’s story, with the publicity surrounding Clint Eastwood’s film Richard Jewell, you probably now recall at least something about one of the ugliest events in modern American history. Eastwood’s film is based on the Vanity Fair piece published in February of 1997, American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell.
I’m not much of a fan of the Olympics, so I didn’t get caught up in the hoopla. Instead of hosting the Olympics, I would’ve much preferred to see the 1990s Atlanta Braves win the World Series. I didn’t attend one Olympic event, and I did my best to avoid the Olympic crowds and traffic. Instead of the games, like many other Americans, what I most recall from that summer was the Olympic Park bombing and the ugly efforts of the media, law enforcement, et al that followed.
Just after 1 a.m., on July 27, 1996, an ALICE pack stuffed with three pipe bombs and numerous three-inch masonry nails—the total weight being more than 40 pounds—exploded. The blast killed one person and injured more than one hundred. The casualties would’ve been much worse if not for the efforts of AT&T security guard, Richard Jewell.
If you had forgotten about or were never very familiar with Jewell’s story, with the publicity surrounding Clint Eastwood’s film Richard Jewell, you probably now recall at least something about one of the ugliest events in modern American history. Eastwood’s film is based on the Vanity Fair piece published in February of 1997, American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell.
As the Vanity Fair piece and Richard Jewell both reveal, while on duty just after midnight on July 27, 1996, Jewell noticed several raucous drunks littering the area he was guarding. While dealing with the drunks, Jewell noticed the ALICE pack and alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) in the area. At first, Jewell was nonchalant about the suspicious pack. Joking with GBI officer Tom Davis, Jewell asked, “Well, are you going to open it?”
Both thought the pack belonged to someone in the area. After Davis asked around and told Jewell that no one claimed it, Jewell told Vanity Fair, “[T]hat is when the little hairs on the back of my head began to stand up. I thought, Uh-oh. This is not good.” Davis, Jewell, and other security guards proceeded to...
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